A more productive strategy would be through engagement by conversing and cooperating with Rouhani and others in his government eager to break with the past.
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However, Rouhani’s second term is unlikely to be easy. More than half of all Iranian university students are women, and in Saudi Arabia, women are not even allowed to drive.
“Rouhani will likely be unwilling or unable to push back against hardliners”. During the call, Putin once again offered congratulations to Rouhani on his landslide reelection victory.
The stakes of this election were particularly high. The votes were sent to Iran via the Pakistani Embassy in Washington. Indeed, despite the Iranian regime’s lack of transparency, Khamenei’s health problems are public knowledge. And Khamenei still has a conservative vanguard from which he can select a successor, so the only real loser here is Raisi.
In his speech, Rouhani showed to have made his mind to abandon his past policy of forbearance and bring his economic improvement project full circle by healing this nagging transparency sore. His rhetoric about openness is not mere political posturing.
The US stance against Iran is “deceptive and destructive” and attempts to undermine the sovereignty of the regional states besides supporting Israel, Qasemi said.
Rouhani spoke openly about Raisi’s role in the 1988 massacre which saw 30,000 political prisoners executed, while Raisi announced that Rouhani had blood on his hand as a result of the executions that he oversaw as President.
Iran’s financial policy-makers also seek to join the Financial Action Task Force, a global anti-money laundering standard-setting body.
Georgia Tech has many of those students, explaining an incident at the university past year, Bahrami said.
Rouhani is no Western-style liberal; he too is a cleric.
But according to experts, although sanctions had harmed Iran’s economy, the country appeared nowhere near a state of collapse.
In the past, “Iran and the United States have experienced bends and turns in their relations, and the U.S. has always failed in its policies, including exerting pressures and sanctions” against Iran, Rouhani said in his press conference following Friday’s landslide victory in the country’s presidential election.
“Clearly it’s going to be hard to back down on some of this stuff”, said Abbas Milani, director of the Iranian Studies program at Stanford University. How will his support for anti-Iran allies in the Middle East square with his relationships with allies that also signed the deal?
Despite Trump’s confrontational rhetoric, Iran had nothing to do with the terror attacks on the U.S. in September 2001, or subsequent attacks in Europe – including Germany, France and England. Just a few weeks ago, in fact, the administration was forced to admit that Rouhani is fulfilling its part of the nuclear deal. For Iranian voters, however, the deal was the means to an end – the raising of living standards and the hope of a better life.
But Trump won’t make it easy for Rouhani.
In the meantime, Rouhani said Iran will continue to support the Syrian and Iraqi governments in their fight against terrorism.
“I have found new reasons for hope”, the president said after his arrival in Tel Aviv, whilst remaining short on details.The last round of talks broke down three years ago without substantial progress on the key issues.
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As President Rouhina stated in his inaugural address, the Iranian people wish “to live in peace and friendship with the rest of the world”. It is an opportunity that should not be squandered. “Foreign policy or simply milking KSA of $408 Bn?”
